Zimbabwe...

[InfiniteNow]

Done. :eek_big:

[REASON]

Done, also. :eek_big:

[Boerseun]

Thanks, guys.

 

Get this:

 

Since the election, Mugabe is running the country with the Joint Operational Command. Basically, the armed forces is running the show.

 

And one of them simply quit, seeing the crap about to hit the fan. He ran off to South Africa, where he disclosed the JOC's strategy for the Presidential Runoff Election (to be held tomorrow, and even after Tsvangirai quit, Mugabe still insist on it - there will be ONE name on the ballot to vote for. Cute.)

 

Any case, an official (albeit internal) JOC document to be distributed to the armed forces on the ground lays their strategy out as follows:

1. Zanu PF youths to be in every constituency, working with war vets, CIO, and the police to make sure Tsvangirai does not hold a successful rally. To do everything needed to frustrate his campaign.
   
2. Do everything possible to prevent MDC agents being deployed at polling stations. If necessary eliminate MDC polling agents.
   
3. All the voters in a ward should surrender their IDs to the village head, and have their names taken down. On the day of voting, the respective village heads should queue outside the polling agent with each member (voter) with a respective number. As much as possible voters shall profess ignorance of the ability to write on his/her own. Agents in the polling stations will be helping voters to mark X where it is necessary and forth with take down the patterns of voting against each individual.
   
4. The indoctrination bases are now fully armed, and most are getting logistical support from the army. Weapons held in the Darwendale armouries are to be distributed to the veterans, including bombs and grenades. Some polling stations to be bombed. MDC youths to be implicated and arrested.
   
5. War veterans to kill MDC MPs, working together with the Army and the CIO.
   
6. In the event that Tsvangirai still wins, the Nigerian scenario to be implemented. Abiola vs Abacha. MPs to be arrested and the electorate silenced. No results to be announced by ZEC in favour of Tsvangirai. All MPs who speak out shall be charged with treason and jailed.
   
7. Polling ballot boxes to be stuffed in remote areas by death squads who will be armed. They have been instructed to abduct and kill whoever gets in their way.
   
8. The elections to be ward based and the voting pattern of the 18 – 45 age group changed to make sure this group is disturbed. Results from wards to be scrapped, and the only source of information will be the constituency command centre. Life is to be made difficult for those seeking clarification on their names. Every police officer not to attend to names missing from the roll especially using radios.
   
9. Governor Gono to finance all the projects, including the buying of weapons.
   
10. All strategic points to be heavily guarded.
    
11. A lot of rigging to be done especially on postal ballot boxes. All forms of propaganda to be dismantled including the media. No officer shall watch any radio or TV station outside Zimbabwe state news. Each officer to vote in the presence of an intelligence officer.
    
12. Zimbabwe Intelligence Corps (ZIC) to provide logistics on the torturing of MDC legislators. All to be silenced. All retired generals to be recalled to national service.
    
13. More terror to be unleashed after elections. More people to be claimed, more displacements in the rural areas. Chiweshe to provide the statistics of voting patterns to assist in determining where terror to be unleashed.
    
14. MDC agents to be bribed in the rural areas – substantial amounts to be offered.
    

There you have it. In so many words.

 

And here we are, having barbeques, drinking with friends, walking around without a care in the world. We get sucked into deep depressions because we don't get promoted, we can't get the hot blonde at the bookstore to talk to us, our businesses don't perform like they should, we can't afford the latest and greatest BMW on the market, our investment portfolios fell with 0.2%, we're going bald, we're going grey, we're getting wrinkles, we don't have a beach house, the last movie we saw sucked, our team didn't win the world cup, the beer's flat, the beer's not cold, and a whole plethora of other nonsensical non-issues.

 

The upside of the entire Zimbabwe cock-up is that however bad your life may seem to be, it's not a patch, not a scratch, not even a smudge on the surface, to how bad people are living somewhere else on this planet.

 

However bad you have it, you have it good. Extraordinarily so. Be thankful for that.

 

We should be thankful for the freedoms we have. Each and every day. The freedoms we take for granted, that make it possible for us to worry about lesser things.

 

If there are any religious people out there reading this, please include Zimbabwe in your prayers tonight - for tomorrow the dogs of war are to be unleashed upon that broken country.

[Caligastia]

I'm seriously considering packing my bags.

 

With the way the govt so blatantly discriminates against whites, I'm surprised there are any of you left at all. I'm originally from NZ, and I remember tons of saffies moving there in the early/mid-nineties. I guess they saw the writing on the wall...have you considered moving to Orania?

[jab2]

The upside of the entire Zimbabwe cock-up is that however bad your life may seem to be, it's not a patch, not a scratch, not even a smudge on the surface, to how bad people are living somewhere else on this planet.

 

However bad you have it, you have it good. Extraordinarily so. Be thankful for that.

 

We should be thankful for the freedoms we have. Each and every day. The freedoms we take for granted, that make it possible for us to worry about lesser things.

 

If there are any religious people out there reading this, please include Zimbabwe in your prayers tonight - for tomorrow the dogs of war are to be unleashed upon that broken country.

 

My friend, even with what you posted, there is no way people who have never spend substantial time in Africa, and I do not mean lost of holidays, I mean working, living, communicating about the difficulties of life, can comprehend the Tribal African mind or understand the frustrations of people having to deal with the Tribal African mind.

 

I remember the Chinese Government visitor we had is SA earlier this year, their Prime Minister or something, saying that democracy is not the political system for Africa. People only understand being beaten into submission by the strongest or something to that effect.

 

With the views of the current SA leadership and the rest of Africa and their attitude regard Zim, I tend to agree. The leaders in Africa will always be the guys with the biggest sticks and they would change sticks often with the resulting bloodshed.

[InfiniteNow]

The people have cowered into a little corner spoken!

 

 

BBC NEWS | Africa | Defiant Mugabe seals sixth term

 

Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for a new five-year term as Zimbabwe's president after election officials declared a landslide victory for him.

 

A 21-gun salute and military jet fly-by greeted Mr Mugabe at the ceremony at his State House residence in Harare.

 

Official results said Mr Mugabe won all 10 provinces with 85.5% of the vote - but there were many spoiled ballots.

 

He was the only candidate to run after the opposition boycotted the vote amid claims of state-sponsored violence.

 

 

 

85% of the vote. That really must mean how badly people wanted him to remain in power and continue with the good he's done for that country. :tongue:

[Boerseun]

How serious does this guy take himself, having won an election where he was the only candidate?

 

This is so ridiculous it's not even funny anymore.

[Pyrotex]

Hi Boerseun,

I've been lurking this thread for a while, but I never knew what to say. I still don't. I even tried researching the end of 'tribalism' in Europe, to get a clue as to what it might take in Africa, but that resulted in pthhaaaa! Nobody seems to know a cure for tribalism.

 

The only understanding of tribalism that I can sort out is a Darwinian explanation, based upon Dawkin's "Mount Improbable". Only this metaphor is the evolution of stable governing systems in an ever-changing environment of social/cultural "ecosystems".

 

There's democracy occupying several local maximums near the peak, and there's tribalism occupying a huge "foothill" near the base of the mountain. The only "mutations" of tribalism are still forms of tribalism. You can't get to any other (better) form of governing from there. Once trapped in tribalism, the only way out is... ?

 

Europe had the onslaught (derived from same word as 'slaughter') of the Roman Empire, the onslaught of the Huns, the onslaught of the Medieval Roman Church and the onslaught of the Bubonic Plague -- all of which put European civilization (???) through a blender, a centuries-long social/cultural mix-master. Countless villages (tribes) were decimated, relocated, decimated again, split up, merged, pushed out, exhiled, and genetically criss-crossed until today there is only a vague remnant of tribalism left. Except for the Serbs and Slovaks, of course.

 

Africa was going to go that same route, that same painful mix-master process. But whites became too civilized to carry it through and we developed a political conscience. I can't blame us. It's one thing to read dusty old history books about how tribalism in Europe got whisked into scrambled eggs. It's totally another thing to have the whisk in your own hands.

 

So, we stand on the sidelines, drink our 1997 Merlots, and complain about the cost of gasoline, as Africans of all tribal stripes find any and all petty excuses for killing and abusing eac other. Where is the British Colonial Force when you really need them? And the French Foreign Legion? And Attila the Hun?

 

We could build an army of robots to invade the continent. Each robot would grasp a resident, and by some sort of random programming, haul that person off to another village or city, force them to marry at random, force them to learn a common language, force them to become clerks in a robotic government, and efficiently enforce upon them a standard body of law -- essentially carry out the mix-master process of history. That way, we could pretend that there was no blood on our hands. The robots would do it.

 

No, we couldn't even do that. What we will do is watch. And find ways of pretending that it isn't happening. And I feel so stinkin' ****in' retchin' bad about it all. I can't do anything to help. But I can feel bad. I'm so sorry that that's all I can do. That, and letting you know that I'm here. And that I know you're there.

[InfiniteNow]

That way, we could pretend that there was no blood on our hands. The robots would do it.

 

No, we couldn't even do that. What we will do is watch. And find ways of pretending that it isn't happening. And I feel so stinkin' ****in' retchin' bad about it all. I can't do anything to help. But I can feel bad. I'm so sorry that that's all I can do. That, and letting you know that I'm here. And that I know you're there.

I've long been searching for a way to say exactly that, but have floundered in finding my words to express that sentiment. I could not agree with you more, P-tex. I just don't know what to do, and feeling bad will not change a thing. It's infuriating and frustrating, knowing that change is needed but not having the ability or resources to take action on that change.

 

Thanks for saying what I've been feeling for so long so eloquently.

[REASON]

No, we couldn't even do that. What we will do is watch. And find ways of pretending that it isn't happening. And I feel so stinkin' ****in' retchin' bad about it all. I can't do anything to help. But I can feel bad. I'm so sorry that that's all I can do. That, and letting you know that I'm here. And that I know you're there.

 

Dammit. I tried to rep you on this Pyro and couldn't.

 

Well written, Sir. I could really feel your sentiment and I share it. It has really bothered me to consider the type of horrors that are being perpetrated on people throughout Africa, and I feel helpless as well.

 

 

Boer, you take care of yourself. If you really feel it's time to pull up your roots than so be it. But I understand that a change of that magnitude can be very daunting.

 

You're a very smart man. I'm sure you'll make a wise decision no matter what you choose to do.

 

Stay vigilant.

[DougF]

Pyrotex

No' date=' we couldn't even do that. What we will do is watch. And find ways of pretending that it isn't happening. And I feel so stinkin' ****in' retchin' bad about it all. I can't do anything to help. But I can feel bad. I'm so sorry that that's all I can do. That, and letting you know that I'm here. And that I know you're there. [/quote']

 

I to wanted to give Rep for this but I was unable to do so,

 

I share your sentiment.

[mynah]

One of the main problems of democracy is that it does not distinguish between those who support a system that offers the greatest good for the largest number of people, and those whose ancestors merely bred like rabbits.

[REASON]

I thought this was interesting.

 

Secret Film Reveals How Mugabe Stole Election

 

A film (seen here) that graphically shows how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbabwe's election has been smuggled out of the country by a prison officer. It is believed to be the first footage of actual ballot-rigging and comes as Zimbabwe's president faces growing international pressure.

 

Shepherd Yuda, 36, fled the country this week with his wife and children. He said that he hoped the film, which was made for the Guardian, would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe.....

[Eclipse Now]

Where are the AU in all this? And to think I just finished writing a blog, "Go the USA (United States of Africa)".

 

Personally, I think the only hope for world peace is international democracy.... not the toothless tiger of UN diplomacy-behind-closed-doors, but real, voting, legally binding international democracy.

 

In other words, the Lisbon treaty —*but worldwide. Yes, you heard me right... as an Australian I basically see the EU as offering the world a model much more valuable than the "United States of Europe" but a model for WORLD Federation... a world Federal government. So from my POV, it really sucked that the Lisbon treaty was rejected by the Irish. :)

[DougF]

Here we go some more news on Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe inflation hits 11' date='200,000 percent[/size']

 

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's inflation rate has soared in the past three months and is now at 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world, according to the country's Central Statistical Office.

 

Official figures dated Monday show inflation has surged from the rate of 2.2 million percent recorded in May, despite the government's price controls.

 

The country's finance minister confirmed the new figure in an interview but said the rising inflation rate was not confined to Zimbabwe alone.

 

"While our case has been aggravated by the illegal sanctions imposed by the Western powers, rising food prices are a world phenomenon because of the use of bio-fuel," said Samuel Mumbengegwi. "But we will continue to fight inflation by making sure that prices charged are realistic."

 

Analysts have said the Zimbabwean government's official inflation rate figures are conservative. Last week, one of Zimbabwe's leading banks, Kingdom Bank, said the country's inflation rate was now more than 20 million percent.

 

 

 

Just in case you were curious what the exchange rate is.

 

 

Live rates at 2008.08.19 11:58:28 UTC

Notice: The Zimbabwe government redenominated the ZWD on August 1' date=' 2008 at a rate of 10,000,000,000 old ZWD to 1 new ZWD. No new currency code has been issued, but the old ZWD currency remains legal tender until December 31, 2008. More info (PDF)

1.00 USD = 16.3295 ZWD

United States Dollars Zimbabwe Dollars

1 USD = 16.3295 ZWD 1 ZWD = 0.0612389 USD [/center']

XE - Universal Currency Converter

[Moontanman]

Here we go some more news on Zimbabwe.

 

 

 

Just in case you were curious what the exchange rate is.

 

 

 

XE - Universal Currency Converter

 

 

Paper money, aren't you glad you don't have to carry around 100 billion in American dollars in Gold? I think I'll print up a 1000 quadrillion dollar note and buy the planet, maybe even the entire solar system :eek2: It's difficult to understand how this inflation could happen, is the paper money based on anything but paper? :thumbs_up Wouldn't money from outside or even gold move in and displace such worthless money? I guess I'm just not knowledgeable about economics on a national level.

[DougF]

I'm sorry I just noticed I forgot the link to the news article posted above.

Zimbabwe inflation hits 11,200,000 percent - CNN.com

 

The locally-owned bank predicted tougher times ahead for Zimbabwe in the absence of donor support and foreign investment in an economy that has been in freefall for almost a decade.

 

Once considered the breadbasket of Africa' date=' Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform program that has decimated commercial agriculture.

[/quote']